Drying and converying machine



M. SQ WEILMAN.

DRYING AND-CONVEYING MACHlNE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 22.1920.

Patented Mar. 28, 1922.

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APPLICATION FILED JUNE 22.1920- 1,41 1 ,247, Patented Mar. 28, 1922.

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MELVILLE S. WEILMAN, O! CINCHT NATI, OHIO.

DRYING AND CONVEYING- MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Mar. 28, 1922.

Applioation filed June 22, 1920. Serial No. 890,785.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MELVILLE S. Warn- MAN, a citizen of the United States, and resi- .dent of Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Drying and Conveying Machines, of which the fol- 'lowing' is a specification.

My present invention relates to improvements in apparatus for drying and facilitating the conveying and packing of articles articularly for use in and is designed more connection with choco ate co'ated candies.

The invention pertains more specifically to the type of apparatus in which trays to hold the articles to be dried are moved in an endless series from the receiving point to the packing point or table, the material'being dried in transit.

The invention aims to provide apparatus of extreme simplicity which secures a maximum period of drying .while occupying a minimum amount of floor space,.and the in; vention includes the novel features of construction and arrangement and combination of parts hereinafter described and particularly defined by the appended claims.

An embodiment of my invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which: 1

F1gur 1 is a side elevation with certain frame arts shown by dot and dash lines for convenlence of illustration;

Fig.'2 is a partial plan view, and

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a modification.

Referring by reference characters to these drawings, the numerals 1, 1 and 2, 2 designate standards or frame members designed to support the working parts hereinafter described, the standards 1 and 1 on the near side, Fig. 1, being shown by full lines and those onthe opposite side being shown by dot and dash lines to clearly distinguish them. The standards. are provided at their lower ends with feet adapted to be bolted or screwed to the floor as, shown, .and are connected to and support, at their upper ends, a table 3, which braces the standards and which serves for the storage of boxes to be used by the operators or attendants for packing the articles.

The trays u on whichthe articles are to be placed are indicated at 4 and are carried by two sets of stag ered oroffset endless chains 5 and. 6 whic pass around driving and guide wheels or sprockets in a zigzag fashion orin a back and forth direction in different successive planes.

The driving wheel for the chain 5 is indicated at 5*- and the guide wheels or sheaves at 5! while the driving and guide wheels for the chain 6 are similarly designated 6 and 6 The driving wheels referred to are carried upon shafts designated 7 and 8 respectlvely and it will be observed that the shaft 8 is set nearer the front end of the machine (the left end Fig. 1') than the shaft 7, or. staggered or offset in relation thereto.

The guide wheels or sheaves may be journaled on stub axles designated 7* and 8 respectively and these stub axles are displaced or staggered relatively to each otherin the same-manner as the shafts 7 and 8.

The trays, which may conveniently be formed from sheet metal, wood or other materials, are mounted upon and secured to frames, or supports, which include a diagonal bar or rod 9 and side members 9, as clearly shown in Fig. 2, where one tray has been omitted to show the supporting frame in full lines.

It will thus be seen that the bar 9 extends substantially diagonally of the trays from the rear corner on one side to the front corner on the opposite side. At these corners the rods or bars 9 are provided with. chain engaging extensions, the extensions 9 engaging the chains 5 and the extensions 9 engaging the chains 6, the'engagement being effected by any suitable pivotal connection between the extensions and the corresponding chain links. It will thus be seen that each tray is supported from two of its diagonally opposite corners only, and as the chains pass around the driving and guide pulleys the trays will travel with the chains and be maintained thereby in a horizontal position.

The topmost driving and guide sprockets or wheels are located at a height convenient for the operator in loading and unloading. The loading station is indicated at A and the direction of travel of the chains and trays by the arrow, Fig. 1. The upper left the next lower position or. line of travel 110 while still kept horizontal, whence it is conveyed toward the rear of the apparatus.

Here the chains travel around the rear guide sheaves which lower each successive tray another step, and so the trays travel back and forth at suocemively lower levels until the lowest level is reached. The trays then travel to the extreme rear end of the apparatus where the guide rollersare so disposed that the chains elevate them to the taking off position or packing station. Here the operators remove the articles and pack them in boxes which have been accessibly-stored on the shelf 3, before referred to. It will be understood that the chains move very slowly so that ample time is allowed for the articles to dry during the back and forth movement referred to and before the packing station is reached, and sufiicient time elapses while the trays are moving on the upper level from the rear to the front to enable all the articles to be boxed. I

Any suitable means may be provided for driving the chains and I have shown as a convenient means an electric motor 10 which, through a suitable belt 11 and pulleys or wheels, drives a shaft 12. This shaft 12 carries two other pulleys 13 and 14 which are connected by belts with pulleys 15 and 16 fastened on shafts 7 and 8 respectively.

I prefer to provide, above the shelf 3, an endless conveyor belt 17 driven from the same motor, upon which the operators may place the filled boxes to be con eyed to any convenient place.

It will be understood that any convenient means may be provided to prevent the sagremoved and ging of the horizontal portions of the chains between the rollers or the sagging of the trays, such as frame bars 18.

Shelves may be provided for convenience of the operators as indicated at 19, provided with cutaway portions 19', in which the operators may stand. In using the apparatus, the taking off space may be utilized to facilitate packing boxes with mixed chocolates if desired. For example boxes would be supplied to the trays at the left hand end of the apparatus (Fig. 1) and as the boxes were moved successively past the attendants stationed at positions 19, they could place the vanous kinds of candy in the boxes from supplies on shelves 19.

A. receptacle for chocolate scrapings may also be provided as indicated at 20.

In F ig. 3 I have shown an arrangement designed to economize floor space when this is necessary, and to this end I so dispose the guide rollers that the trays are moved vertically ,in a zigzag or to and fro manner. In this view A designates the feed end of the apparatus and B the position when the trays are unloaded.

Means 'may be provided to prevent any liability of tilting of the trays at the loading station which might occur should an operator inadvertently bear too heavily on one corner of a tray.

Such means may conveniently take the form of bars 21 carried by the uprights 1 and 2 and overlying the upper end edges of the trays which would prevent either one of said edges rising under such tilting action, but would not interfere with the bodily downward movement of the trays as the chains pass around the rollers.

What I claim is:

1. An apparatus of the character described including a plurality of trays, endless flexible elements adapted to travel in a circuitous path, means at diagonally opposite points only of the trays for attaching said trays to the flexible elements and upon which the trays are entirely supported throughout its path'of travel.

An apparatus of the character described including a plurality'of trays adapted to travel in a circuitous which path includes a horizontal portion, and means to positively prevent tipping of said trays when they travel in said horizontal portion of said path.

path part of 3. The device'of claim 2 said means ineluding a member projeetin over said trays. In testimony whereof, aflix my signature.

-MELVILLE s. WEILMAN. 

